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Having never done either, I can’t say for sure.
I suppose if you shape changed and had a good enough form and control, it would come built in/natural.
There are, however, some demons that can cry/exude tears. Pretty sure Antefalken can as it’s most likely something he has to fake to get all those house maids in bed.
Now you are thinking like Lenamare!
Good thing he doesn’t know or he’d rat Exador out in a heartbeat.
Argh
Apparently our data center was raided by Oorstemothian agents who confiscated our server under a search warrant pertaining to a group of demons and their henchmen who somehow sunk one of their official vessels.
Of course, I, Tizzy, know nothing about such demons. What is this world coming to when sovereign vessels of Oorstemoth can be attacked and sunk with no provocation?
Fortunately, Damien was able to negotiate the return of the server. I don’t have a lot more details yet, I’m awaiting more information.
Tizzy
Yes, clearly all gods are truly immortal, unless their religion says they are not. Some gods can die. But to truly die they have to die on EVERY plane of existence, as long as there is belief somewhere, that the god exists, then they still exist, possibly at a reduced level.
I’m just not going to impugn anyone by accident, better to claim a mortal god immortal than vice versa and get hit by Blue Lightning.
nasty stuff, Blue Lightning.
It is all very complicated and depends on the pantheon.
But realize this, even then it is not so simple. Some pantheons establish different rules on different planes of existence, and even within the same plane they may move between cultures and change/mix things up. The Egyptian gods were really big on this. If you follow them over time and in both lower and upper Egypt, you see the same or similar beings sometimes they are separate people other times it’s just a name change, sometimes two deities are parent child sometimes lovers–husband and wife—
The thing is, these gods stick around for a long time, and they will change their PR tactics and branding to adjust to the time and place. They will try different marketing strategies. Change their names, their roles etc.
What spoiler?
“Later on Talarius…”
Was talking about when Talarius shows up in book 1. His sword, Ruiden has iron in it, and is very magical. Believe it or not, when Talrius says his sword is hungry, happy, angry, sad etc. He’s not projecting on to it. It’s an intelligent sword (not a person, but a spirit)
The book doesn’t say anything about any pantheon’s culture…however I think you can sort of assume that the structure that worshipers form often mirrors that of the gods’ structure.
And on that basis, SMW is probably correct about the Etonians. Tiernon, Torean, Hendel, Krinna, Namora
However, different pantheons may (and do) have completely different cultures.
As for me being unreliable.
There is one person saying that. ONLY ONE, T-A-G, and how reliable is he? Not very if you ask me. So it’s his word against mine!
Are you trying to scare the crap out of people in Astlan?
Cause that will do it.
So much of their comfort level comes from knowing as a fact what demons look like, and how they can and should and do behave.
The idea of “demons among us” would literally scare the living daylights out of them.
In fact…for those who are starting to suspect (Damien for example) it’s having that very effect.
Probably not that high.
I have heard of some very powerful shadows, but I don’t know anything about them.
But by the time you get to IV+ levels you can generally change shape, so an Arch Demon might have a shadow form, but I doubt they are going to tell anyone, because that would sort of take away the surprise when they drain your soul unexpectedly.
There are some deities and their avatars like that.
The fork could be for smelling…it could be for telling lies (he speak with forked tongue) or it could be more like the Strain style vampire to puncture a victim and suck out mana and animus.
All demons are different, so what a forked tongue might do for one demon, might be different for another. There is no evolution in demons, they are the products of pure nightmare…so maybe the tongue is just forked for appearance because the people dreaming it up didn’t know what forked tongues were for.
Such great ideas!
I’ve now found a path to becoming a god! Bwah hah hah hah!
I should have started this Magic Mirror Site a long centuries ago!
:d/
=d>
The inconsistencies are not actually inconsistencies.
As you point out, things are consistently inconsistent.
The Abyss in particular is supposed to be full of anachronisms. In particular, demons don’t really “build” anything.
They STEAL things, they have been pillaging the rest of the multi-verse for millenia. The demon princes and archdemons can open Demonic Gateways to other planes and have their minions drive truckloads of stuff through.
Very little is actually “made” in the Abyss. Although quite a bit is “created” via various more magical mechanisms. For example the cars run on Sorcehol. A synthetic ethyl-alcohol created by demon sorcerors (hydromancers, aquamancers–various Water Elementalist demons)
Also, remember how Antfalken notes that the appearance of the Courts changes frequently? Don’t assume that everything Tom or others report seeing there is exactly what it seems. There are real things, facade things and illusions. Remember, Demons are about showmanship, perceptions, smoke, mirrors, LIES…appearance is everything, reality is second best. It’s not what is real that matters, it’s what people believe that matters.
Because for demons, belief can shape reality.
As far as Astlan:
1) No pictures/images are canonical only the writing is; so if pictures seem inconsistent that is the Author Guy’s poor artistic skills.
2) However, Astlan is supposed to be very technologically advanced, the same as Earth; they just have different technology.
Do NOT make the mistake of assuming Astlan is medieval Europe etc. It’s very definitely not. Remember, these guys (Lenamare) have nukes, or something similar. Medicine and healing is far far more advanced in Astlan than on Earth today. While not widely used by non mana-wielders, they do have instant long distance communication in the forms of mirrors, crystal balls, dreamspeaking and all sorts of other methods.
They have sailing ships, flying ships, magic carpets, teleportation, runic gateways and dragons (and other creatures) for long distance travel.
Also, remember wizards have access to other planes of existence as well. They can’t go as far as Earth, but they can steal ideas from other planes. Also, there are demons from far out planes visiting Astlan and introducing ideas and concepts, and masquerading as humans. They will often import ideas from their home realm to make themselves comfortable and Astlanian’s will steal it.
Book binding is extremely advanced. It has to be because that’s how they have distributed spells for centuries.
I’ve mentioned this before, where does Lenamare get the money for his expensive research? His school?
He gets it by inventing spells, patenting them and selling them. Check out the various committees of the Council, you’ll note there is a patent committee.
They have really good patent laws in Astlan. Most nations or groups have pretty good trade laws and intellectual property laws, all of which foster innovation, trade and growth.
So in short…you are supposed to see lots of inconsistencies, because that’s just how Astlan really is.
What’s unhealthy about demonic cultural conditioning?
If you read it enough, you’ll start seeing how reasonable demons are, and how unreasonable humans are and pretty soon your thoughts will be on a higher plane of reasoning and you’ll be able to see truths not apparent to mortals.
As a simple matter of principle, being a demon myself, I’d have to be insane to tell you how to kill me permanently.
Fortunately for you, most people consider me insane.
The C.O.D. is definitely one of the best known ways of killing a demon; it will completely rip up/consume its animus and mana.
One big reason demons are hard to kill permanently in Astlan is that as their mana bodies get too weakened they just return to the Abyss before you can completely destroy their mana body and their animus inside.
If you could somehow, keep a demon from returning to the abyss, destroy it’s mana body, it would eventually dissipate like the spirit of a dead person with no afterlife agreement with a deity. that would take some time so you’d want to hurry it along, maybe by doing something to dispell the animus or get rid of it. Obviously the right kind of pentacles could help, but most of them would serve to keep the animus intact so they’d just be stuck in bodiless/manaless state inside the pentacles. Very tricky.
A C.O.D. works because it’s generally too fast for the demon to escape from. A particularly high powered demon might be able to get away, but most can’t.
There are certain spells that extremely high up priests can cast; but these are part of a ritual, so you need the demon trapped by a pentacle or something because it takes a while. The dagger that Talarius had had a viral version of one these sorts of spells and was what was really dangerous. It’s magic interwove itself with his animus and would have followed him back to the Abyss (this is another way of doing it) However, he was able to use to the pure mana of the same god that created the viral magic to heal it.
The spell that the priests cast was more of a holy acid cloud spell. A lot more slow moving than a C.O.D. Think of it as a “Blessed” gaseous version of the dragon’s breath acid. He could have escaped that by returning to the abyss/getting out of the cloud. The other cloud they cast earlier was just a mana draining cloud; along the lines of what some undead creatures can do (although most of them also drain animus).
The point of these was to weaken him enough for Talarius to defeat him/kill him.
Next, if you follow a demon to the abyss and destroy so much of his/body (and do it fast enough) that there is nothing left to regenerate they die permanently. However, that’s usually a suicidal option. Same idea as C.O.D. but you get more time since the demon can’t shift to another plane…unless of course they are powerful enough to get off a demonic gateway or something to another plane…but that does require concentration.
Tizzy
So obviously you two have hacked the site and found book II! :-$
Yes, all of that (in various forms) happens; although things are actually a bit more complex and wide spread.
I refer you back to the battle, what were the Oorstemothians doing during the battle, other than shooting demons out of the sky?
In sum…there will be lots of freaking out going on by all parties.
Of cursory interest I should also mention, and the author has mentioned this before elsewhere…
The “real” book is Demons of Astlan it’s just broken up into multiple volumes…which means that since the last chapter was 79, the next chapter is 80 and that’s where Book II starts. There is no time gap. (or at least nothing more than between normal chapters)
